Bob Carr's tribute to Bee Gees

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In the swinging '60s when the budding politician lived at Robey Street, Matraville, the Gibb brothers - Barry, Robin and Maurice - were practising their music five kilometres away at 171 Bunnerong Road, Maroubra.

The bookish Mr Carr went on to become the local MP, then Premier, while the Bee Gees went on to write such hits as Stayin' Alive and I Started A Joke and grow into rock legends.

On Friday, Mr Carr put down a book on contemporary global politics to pick up an electric guitar and celebrate his enthusiasm for the music of the Bee Gees, especially his all-time favourite album Saturday Night Fever.

He turned up at the Gibb family's old three-bedroom, California-style red brick bungalow to unveil a plaque to honour their stay in Maroubra between 1963 and 1966.

He and rock'n'roll great Col Joye, who helped discover the Bee Gees and put them on the road to recording fame, performed an impromptu duet in front of the Delgado family, who have lived in the home for the past 10 years.

The Bunnerong Road house is the first site in the Government's historic plaques program, which will see 10 plaques unveiled on the Australia Day weekend in January next year.

"The Bee Gees are part of our nation's musical history and they deserve this honour," Mr Carr said.

"We have some of the world's most colourful characters and they should be acknowledged in our history."

What particularly delighted the Premier was that Barry Gibb, who lives in Miami, approved the wording of the inscription which reads: "The Bee Gees - Barry, Robin and Maurice, along with younger brother Andy Gibb - lived here between 1963 and 1966. The band was formed in 1958, signed its first record contract in 1963 in Sydney and became the most successful musical act in Australian history."

The plaque unveiling will do nothing to damage the value of the former Bee Gees residence, which is for sale.

Real estate agent Nick Panovski of Ray White Maroubra said the price was in the $800,000 range and he had not excluded the possibility of an offer from the surviving brothers Gibb, Barry and Robin.